Digital Divide: NBN could split city

Tom Cowie

Ballarat has been touted as one of the first regional cities to benefit from the national broadband network's super-fast internet speeds. But half the Victorian city won't get it any time soon – and possibly not at all.

As the first high speed fibre-optic cables are laid under Ballarat streets, concerns have been raised about a city of haves and have-nots when it comes to internet broadband.

Construction on the $37.4 billion infrastructure project is under way in central Ballarat, as well as to the east and the north.

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But it's the parts of Ballarat to the city's west and south that face the possibility of being left behind depending on the polices of the major political parties.

Software developer Troy Mcilvena said there could be a split between those that have fibre connected to their homes and those that don’t, a key difference between Labor and the Coalition.

It could impact property values in the suburbs that miss out as well as their ability to attract businesses.

“Some suburbs are going to get this boost of infrastructure but at the same time you’re leaving behind some of those others. It just creates more inequality,” he said.

As well as Ballarat Central, areas around Soldiers Hill, Ballarat East and Black Hill will soon receive the much-touted fibre capable of speeds of up to one gigabit a second.

Areas around Wendouree, Alfredton and Sebastopol are not listed in the current rollout plan by NBN Co and will not begin construction before July 2015.

Inside the rollout zone

Karl McNamara lives in a part of Lake Wendouree where construction has commenced on the fibre-optic cable NBN rollout.He currently has ADSL2, which he uses to download music and TV shows, as well as for studying.

He said he was looking forward to signing up to NBN fibre when it became available.

"I've already said I would to my wife. I'm frustrated with the download speeds. Around 5pm it's quite ridiculously slow," he said.

A geologist with the Castlemaine Goldfields in Mt Clear, Mr McNamara said he was happy "for selfish reasons" to have a house in the rollout area.

He said he was waiting to see if the NBN was "all it's cracked up to be" before getting too excited. "I have friends in Brunswick who are very happy with it. So I'll see what it's like before I go gloating to people."

Outside the rollout zone

Shona Gull's house is a stone's throw from the current NBN fibre rollout area in Lake Wendouree but she says she's not that bothered.

"I'm not an expert on the topic, but I just feel that at the speed technology moves it's just a waste of money if it changes," she said.

She currently has ADSL, which was more than enough for her work and web browsing needs, she said.

"How much quicker can the internet be? You click a website and go straight in," she said.

Rural people needed better internet access, she said, but closer to the city there were other options.

"I'm not that fussed if it's not in my street, because I'm happy with my internet speed."

A Liberal voter, she also believed the benefits of the NBN hadn't been explained very well. "It's a political popularity thing that's aimed at making themselves look good," she said.

The federal government says it will finish the NBN as planned, meaning the suburbs to the west and south of Ballarat will get fibre eventually if Labor is re-elected later this year.

The Coalition says it will only complete the construction of fibre-to-the-premise where it has been contracted, with concerns that will create a digital divide.

Mr Mcilvena said the suburbs not part of the initial fibre rollout won't have the same access to educational resources and healthcare services as those with the fastest technology.

As a resident of Ballarat North, Mr Mcilvena lives in an area that will be connected to fibre by the end of the year.

He said businesses are increasingly relying on cloud-based software and data, meaning they might seek to move their premises if the broadband isn't up to speed.

"If you look at it from the consumer point of view if you've got improved access to entertainment that becomes desirable," he added.

NBN Co has stressed that engineering factors are the reason for some suburbs of Ballarat getting fibre before others.

Paramedic Barry Brennan lives in a part of Lake Wendouree which, according to the NBN rollout map, falls just outside the area about to get fibre broadband.

A big supporter of the NBN, he was philosophical about missing out but said the Coalition had no commitment to high-speed broadband.

"What they'll roll out will be a shadow of what it should and could be, it's not a patch on what Labor will provide us," he said.

"As far as missing out by a street, I guess someone's got to."

George Fong, vice president of the Internet Society of Australia, said suburbs like Wendouree had access to other forms of internet including cable that provided decent speeds.

"There is an argument that they have had access to high-speed broadband technology well ahead of the rest of Ballarat for sometime now," he said.

Trevor Booth, director of Ray White Ballarat, said he was waiting to see the take-up rate of the NBN before attributing any possible price difference in properties.

The difference between Labor and Coalition policies

Labor wants to install fibre-optic cable into the premises of 93 per cent of Australians, allowing for the possibility of speeds of up to one gigabit a second.

Locations which are too remote for the fibre roll out will be connected to the NBN through wireless and satellite services which can offer speeds of 25 megabits per second.

The key cost of the massive infrastructure project is installing fibre to every premise (FTTP), with Labor arguing that it will future-proof Australia's communication needs.

Laying fibre across the country means the rollout will be a slow process.

The Coalition is yet to make its broadband policies clear but it has said it will install fibre to the street instead of each premise because it is cheaper. It has indicated it will connect premises to the node via existing technologies, including copper, wireless and possibly existing fibre cables used for cable TV.

Opposition spokesman for communications Malcolm Turnbull has said the Coalition would deliver high-speed broadband sooner and more cheaply than Labor.

"Fibre to the premise is the superior technological solution in terms of getting the max amount of bandwidth but it is hugely expensive," he told a Ballarat function recently.

Ballarat MP Catherine King said the Coalition's plan would see some people miss out on the fastest internet speeds.

"What it means is you have a digital divide and that's what we've been trying to stop in this country," she said.

19 comments

I'm waiting for the first article reporting some households stringing some cables across the street so that neighbours can share the NBN speeds...

Commenter

Peter

Location

Oz

Date and time

April 08, 2013, 4:18PM

@Peter - yeah tempting, huh ? I think that what a lot of people don't get just yet is that the benefits of FTTP are only going to be realised in the medium-long term, when applications are invented that use the available bandwidth. The article also quotes 1Gbps for fibre, which is very conservative. 10Gbps is easily achievable (assuming the router/switch technology can keep up). According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber-optic_communication, speeds of 14Tbps (14,000Gbps) were achieved back in 2006 over a single fibre optic line. I think that if the NBN is allowed to proceed as FTTP, this will eventually be looked back on as a truly visionary investment in our future.

Commenter

Dave

Date and time

April 09, 2013, 8:35AM

A divide you say?

More like another deep empty chasm just like the ones between the ears of the COALition members!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Commenter

The Realist

Location

The Real World

Date and time

April 08, 2013, 4:43PM

Rather than snide coments, maybe you can help where Steven Conroy has failed by convincing all those who have the NBN in their street but still haven't signed up yet? For me it's very simple. Today I get 16 Mps line speed on my humble Optus Cable for about $50 / month. If a comparable NBN speed (whenever it becomes available) cannot be had for less than $50 / month then it's sorry no bananas Mr NBN. If I can get minimum 16Mps line speed for $50 / month or less then no problem. In other words for me cost is more important than higher speeds.

All this greedy rubbish about some people missing out because they are in 'remote areas'. Australia is a sparcely populated country of 23 Million people. We are not South Korea or Singapore with massively higher population densities. People in remote areas feeling entitled to superfast broadband at taxpayer expense is like me saying I'm entitled to high speed rail to my house in the outer suburbs - not realistic. The fact the NBN is being rolled out to Country towns ahead of Metropolitan Sydney & Melbourne gives the game away. Politics is being put ahead of responsible use of public funds. Typical Labor.

Commenter

Jason

Date and time

April 09, 2013, 4:53AM

Jason, you might be happy with 16Mbps now and into the foreseeable future. The reality is, many people aren't and in the near future most won't be. Copper is yesterday's technology. Each year it will become increasingly outdated. It has very hard limits to its performance, in many places the copper network is seriously degraded. Mr Turnbull's FTTN will require billions in repair and improvement of the copper network, plus annual maintenance. However, we will need to replace the copper with fibre at some stage. Upgrading to a FTTH solution after doing an FTTN is vastly more expensive than doing FTTH straight up. All Mr Turnbull's solution is doing is not saving costs but shifting them into the future, for an even bigger spend.

BTW, population densities are much higher than you state because the areas getting FTTH are denser areas, the less dense areas get firxed wireless or satellite.

Commenter

James from Brisbane

Date and time

April 09, 2013, 9:13AM

I guess the reason is that in the areas mentioned, there are already a Private Enterprise Hybrid-Fibre-Coaxial (HFC). (The model the LNP is Proposing) network operating in those areas. I gather there is no roll-out plan because the NBN has to work out how it's going to compulsory acquire such networks, for what cost etc, with this technology, only the last mile of copper has to be replaced with fibre. It's a considerably cheaper option for the NBN co to buy a company that already has the infrastructure and backhaul, to make up it's own network.

Commenter

shivermefibres

Date and time

April 08, 2013, 5:25PM

I support the NBN, however, deploying it in Ballarat as a first release site right across the top of iiNet's existing DOCSIS 3 cable network already selling 100Mbps internet services to residents and businesses further shows the incompetence with which this plan is being executed. Why not Bendigo or one of the other thousands of towns that don't have such competing infrastructure first?

Commenter

Dogs

Location

ACT

Date and time

April 08, 2013, 5:44PM

Exactly Dogs, exactly right.

Commenter

Dave

Location

Sydney

Date and time

April 09, 2013, 8:28AM

I support it too, but the rollout has been managed by the village idiot.

Commenter

DMH

Location

Sydney

Date and time

April 09, 2013, 9:14AM

Isn't it Coalition doctrine to maintain a divide between the haves and have-nots? They simply act in the interest of their paymasters.

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